Johnny Manziel enters treatment center

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ohnny-manziel-entered-treatment-on-wednesday/

Reports: Johnny Manziel “entered treatment” on Wednesday
Posted by Mike Wilkening on February 2, 2015

Getty Images

According to multiple published reports Monday morning, Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel has sought treatment for undisclosed personal issues.

According to Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and several other reporters, Manziel “entered treatment” last Wednesday, an advisor for the quarterback said Monday, according to a statement released by Manziel’s publicist.

“Johnny knows there are areas in which he needs to improve in order to be a better family member, friend and teammate and he thought the off-season was the right time to take this step,” the publicist told the Plain Dealer and other media outlets. “On behalf of Johnny and his family, we’re asking for privacy until he rejoins the team in Cleveland.”

The 22-year-old Manziel appeared in just five games as a rookie, making two starts before suffering a season-ending hamstring injury.

UPDATE: Browns General Manager Ray Farmer has released the following statement on Manziel, per Nate Ulrich of the Akron Beacon Journal:

“We respect Johnny’s initiative in this decision and will fully support him throughout this process. Our players’ health and well-being will always be of the utmost importance to the Cleveland Browns.

“We continually strive to create a supportive environment and provide the appropriate resources, with our foremost focus being on the individual and not just the football player. Johnny’s privacy will be respected by us during this very important period and we hope that others will do the same.”

 

[Irish]

Hope he gets the help he needs. The guy is a talent, and deserves a chance to succeed.

Substance abuse is nothing to joke about, although I'm sure many will attempt to. Substance abuse and behavior such as his is often the result of more debilitating ailments, namely depression. Depression is a conversation that this country still has yet to take seriously, just look at the way many handled Brandon Marshall and his illness.

Help exists. It is encouraging to see a guy like Johnny Football accepting the help he needs.

 

[Zaphod]

Great news, now maybe the voices in his head will stop telling him that he's already won a super bowl so that he can properly focus on being a decent backup quarterback in the NFL.

 

[Prime Time]

Hope he gets the help he needs. The guy is a talent, and deserves a chance to succeed.

Substance abuse is nothing to joke about, although I'm sure many will attempt to. Substance abuse and behavior such as his is often the result of more debilitating ailments, namely depression. Depression is a conversation that this country still has yet to take seriously, just look at the way many handled Brandon Marshall and his illness.

Help exists. It is encouraging to see a guy like Johnny Football accepting the help he needs.

Excellent post. When I went into AA at age 29, I met a girl there who had just turned 19. I remember thinking "Damn, that's kind of young to realize you're all screwed up and seek help." She's in her early fifties now, still clean and sober, and has led a good, productive life. It's never too soon to get help. Hope Manziel cleans up his act and has a great life and career.

 

[Dodgersrf]

If he's doing it to be a better team mate. He'll fail.

If he's doing it to better his life, he may have a chance.
Unfortunately, this usually only works after hitting rock bottom. Which I doubt he has yet.

Good luck to him though.

 

[Sum1]

My only question is whether he is truly dependent or if he is simply an early 20's something out partying and not realizing he isn't just a normal 22 year old and needs to mature much faster than many his age. Sometimes it just feels like in today's PC world people are quick to put a label on things...does Manziel really have a problem or is he just in need of realizing he needs to put the party brakes on and take football serious.

I can remember being 22 and just out of college and still living that college life style to a certain degree. I'm not an alcoholic and drink very rarely anymore...but I partied pretty hard when I was his age.

 

[Athos]

Well that's weird.......trying to insert a quote only to get an "insert from desktop" box.

Anyway, true shit @Dodgersrf

Gotta want it for yourself. Even then, ain't easy.

As Justin Blackmon can attest.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Great news, now maybe the voices in his head will stop telling him that he's already won a super bowl so that he can properly focus on being a decent backup quarterback in the NFL.

*
by voices in his head you mean the cocaine?

but seriously glad the guy is getting help - he's a hill country boy from down the highway
it would be a nice story if he could get it all together

 

[WestCoastRam]

My only question is whether he is truly dependent or if he is simply an early 20's something out partying and not realizing he isn't just a normal 22 year old and needs to mature much faster than many his age. Sometimes it just feels like in today's PC world people are quick to put a label on things...does Manziel really have a problem or is he just in need of realizing he needs to put the party brakes on and take football serious.

I can remember being 22 and just out of college and still living that college life style to a certain degree. I'm not an alcoholic and drink very rarely anymore...but I partied pretty hard when I was his age.

Yeah but Sum,

Did you let your drinking affect your job? Did you miss work cause you were drunk?

Might be there difference between you two.

 

[Sum1]

Yeah but Sum,

Did you let your drinking affect your job? Did you miss work cause you were drunk?

Might be there difference between you two.

I'd be a total liar if I said I never came in a few minutes late or stayed home sick from the "brown bottle flu"...
I can remember over sleeping once.

I'm not saying he doesn't have a problem, I'm just saying his behavior looks an awful lot like many 22 year olds.

...I was never one for drugs, BTW...but I had some friends that did cocaine and what not. Many are now straight as an arrow and very successful. I'd also say that though they partied in their younger days and probably did things they look back and say that was stupid, they weren't and aren't addicts. But I do have one friend that I'd call a functioning alcoholic now and he definitely had a problem then and does now. I also know one person that has a drug problem for sure.

Ha, I don't want to paint a picture that everyone I hung out with in those days did nothing but drink and do drugs constantly, because that sure isn't the case...but just trying to bring some perspective to the discussion.

I think athletes are in a very unique situation...they can't afford to learn to grow up. They need to do it quickly, and maybe this is what Manziel needs to do to do that...but I still question if he is truly dependent or if he's just decided to go through the steps that change the perception and if this is something he has chosen to do to take the step to adulthood rather than "saving his life" type of thing.

 

[rams24/7]

Still isn't going to be a good football player

 

[Prime Time]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/02/on-manziel-browns-have-only-themselves-to-blame/

On Manziel, Browns have only themselves to blame
Posted by Mike Florio on February 2, 2015

Getty Images

Setting aside for now the reality that Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel apparently suffers from a health condition for which he needs support, understanding, and assistance, the Browns have a problem for which they only have themselves to blame.

Despite Manziel’s high-stakes Eddie Haskell routine from a year ago, when he supposedly ensconced himself in football and shunned partying, the record already was clear: Johnny Football was a ticking time bomb.

Sure, it didn’t get as much attention as it should have among a media fascinated by the possibility that Manziel would become the next Tim Tebow, driving ratings and generating clicks and selling whatever remaining newspapers and magazines there are. But the Browns were making a much larger investment in JFF. And the Browns have only themselves to blame for JFFing it all up.

While most of the blame goes to owner Jimmy Haslam and/or the homeless man whose “draft Manziel” recommendation confirmed Haslam’s belief that Browns fans wanted Johnny Football to become Johnny Cleveland, people like G.M. Ray Farmer have an obligation to protect the owner from himself. And if people like Farmer can’t get through to an owner who was smitten by the potential upside of a guy with a colossal downside, then someone other than Farmer should be the person in position to get through to an owner who is poised to make a decision that could undermine the best interests of the team.

If no such person exists, the owner needs to sell the team to someone who doesn’t need such a person in the team’s employment.

The evidence of the potential for a substance-abuse problem was hiding in plain sight months before the Browns traded up from No. 26 to No. 22 to pick Manziel, courtesy ofESPN The Magazine. Manziel’s own father said that Johnny drinks to deal with stress. Manziel’s parents and his college coach required Manziel to visit with an alcohol counselor after an alcohol-related arrest. Paul Manziel also expressed concern about a temper that made the father reluctant to engage in one of the ultimate father-son activities.

“I don’t enjoy playing golf with him because I don’t want to see that temper,” Paul Manziel told Wright Thompson at the time. “I honestly do not. I cringe when he wants to play golf. . . . I don’t know where the anger comes from. I don’t think he knows. If it comes from his drinking, or if he’s mad at himself for not being a better person when he fails, when he fails God and his mom and me. If it makes him angry that he’s got demons in him. You can only speculate because you can’t go in there.”

The Browns needed to go in there. Or they shouldn’t have allowed Manziel to come into their organization. The father’s words alone should have been enough to prompt Farmer to commission a full-scale, no-stone-unturned effort to get to the bottom of the Johnny Manziel anger rabbit hole. And the Browns should have removed his name from the draft board absent a full and complete explanation that made it clear to the Browns that Manziel’s demons would not destroy his NFL career before it even started.

The Browns failed. And they’ll continue to fail unless Haslam finds the right people to protect Haslam from himself.

 

[Rambitious1]

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/02/02/on-manziel-browns-have-only-themselves-to-blame/

On Manziel, Browns have only themselves to blame
Posted by Mike Florio on February 2, 2015

Getty Images

Setting aside for now the reality that Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel apparently suffers from a health condition for which he needs support, understanding, and assistance, the Browns have a problem for which they only have themselves to blame.

Despite Manziel’s high-stakes Eddie Haskell routine from a year ago, when he supposedly ensconced himself in football and shunned partying, the record already was clear: Johnny Football was a ticking time bomb.

Sure, it didn’t get as much attention as it should have among a media fascinated by the possibility that Manziel would become the next Tim Tebow, driving ratings and generating clicks and selling whatever remaining newspapers and magazines there are. But the Browns were making a much larger investment in JFF. And the Browns have only themselves to blame for JFFing it all up.

While most of the blame goes to owner Jimmy Haslam and/or the homeless man whose “draft Manziel” recommendation confirmed Haslam’s belief that Browns fans wanted Johnny Football to become Johnny Cleveland, people like G.M. Ray Farmer have an obligation to protect the owner from himself. And if people like Farmer can’t get through to an owner who was smitten by the potential upside of a guy with a colossal downside, then someone other than Farmer should be the person in position to get through to an owner who is poised to make a decision that could undermine the best interests of the team.

If no such person exists, the owner needs to sell the team to someone who doesn’t need such a person in the team’s employment.

The evidence of the potential for a substance-abuse problem was hiding in plain sight months before the Browns traded up from No. 26 to No. 22 to pick Manziel, courtesy ofESPN The Magazine. Manziel’s own father said that Johnny drinks to deal with stress. Manziel’s parents and his college coach required Manziel to visit with an alcohol counselor after an alcohol-related arrest. Paul Manziel also expressed concern about a temper that made the father reluctant to engage in one of the ultimate father-son activities.

“I don’t enjoy playing golf with him because I don’t want to see that temper,” Paul Manziel told Wright Thompson at the time. “I honestly do not. I cringe when he wants to play golf. . . . I don’t know where the anger comes from. I don’t think he knows. If it comes from his drinking, or if he’s mad at himself for not being a better person when he fails, when he fails God and his mom and me. If it makes him angry that he’s got demons in him. You can only speculate because you can’t go in there.”

The Browns needed to go in there. Or they shouldn’t have allowed Manziel to come into their organization. The father’s words alone should have been enough to prompt Farmer to commission a full-scale, no-stone-unturned effort to get to the bottom of the Johnny Manziel anger rabbit hole. And the Browns should have removed his name from the draft board absent a full and complete explanation that made it clear to the Browns that Manziel’s demons would not destroy his NFL career before it even started.

The Browns failed. And they’ll continue to fail unless Haslam finds the right people to protect Haslam from himself.

Sad, I hope the kid gets help AND makes the most of it and fixes the many issues he has and gets his life back on track.

Having said that, I think this and other reports about him have validated the position that some of us had on this guy before the draft. That given his issues, the first round was way too high to draft him, if he was a draft-able prospect at all. I will not even address his on-field performance issues at this point.

 

[-X-]

Guess it's gonna take more than a Snickers this time.

 

[Mikey Ram]

Are some here assuming that coke is his "problem" of choice, or did I miss it being mentioned by anybody with any real knowledge of the situation ???

 

[Prime Time]

Are some here assuming that coke is his "problem" of choice, or did I miss it being mentioned by anybody with any real knowledge of the situation ???

So far all that's come out is "undisclosed personal issues."

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Are some here assuming that coke is his "problem" of choice, or did I miss it being mentioned by anybody with any real knowledge of the situation ???

that is what I have been hearing for years around here
again I live in the Hill Country and I'm always around Kerrville and Comfort
but you know you have to take it with a grain of salt, cause it's the A/C guy who goes to church with their parents who tells me this stuff, or the guy that comes by to fix my septic system that tells me a story of how he and his buddies used to party with him, etc....

 

[-X-]

Are some here assuming that coke is his "problem" of choice, or did I miss it being mentioned by anybody with any real knowledge of the situation ???

http://thebiglead.com/2014/07/07/johnny-manziel-las-vegas-bathroom-rolling-twenty-dollar-bill/

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

Hope he gets the help he needs. The guy is a NCAA talent, and deserves a chance to succeed.

Fixed it for you.

And yes as far as the addiction problems I hope it goes well for him. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

However even fully recovered and committed I doubt he ever becomes an NFL success.

 

[fearsomefour]

Who knows what his motivation is?
If it legit I hope he gets what he needs. There have been guys, well known examples being Favre and Chris Carter, that overcame abuse problems to have great careers.
With Manziel, to me, everything has to be taken with a grain of salt.